A few years ago I was watching a Rick Steves show and if I'm remembering correctly it was somewhere in Europe and you would start out at a place and then the next day walk 10 miles. Your belongings would then be taken separately to the next rest stop. You then get there have dinner and the next day walk another 10+ miles to the next stop, so on and so forth.
Does anyone know where this trip is located and if you've taken it, how was it?
Mont Blanc hiking is what you are thinking of. I have not done.
The Tour du Mont Blanc is a strenuous hiking tour from inn to inn or mountain hut in the Alps, circumnavigating the mountain, usually from Chamonix through Italy and Switzerland and back to Chamonix. There are companies that will set this up for you with route maps, lodging, and luggage transport, such as the one I have linked below with Mac’s Adventures. But as a self-guided adventure it should only be tackled by fit and experienced hikers. And even though we are in that category (I have backpacked the whole 210 miles of John Muir trail in the Sierra, for example, we preferred to hike the Tour du Mont Blanc with a guide (as Rick did for his video)
https://www.macsadventure.com/us/walking-tours/europe-walking-tours/france/tour-du-mont-blanc/
There are other long-distance trails that are easier and safer for the less experienced hiker. The famed Camino de Santiago is one example of a trek that one can do solo:
https://www.macsadventure.com/us/camino-tours/camino-frances/
And there are more on offer, such as the Coast to Coast trail in the UK, the West Highland Way in Scotland, the Alta Via in the Dolomites, various coastal trails in England, Wales, Spain, Portugal, or vineyard walks in France and elsewhere. It’s all good.
Look up Macs Adventures for ideas. They have self guided tours all over Europe. There are other companies, but that would give you a start and an overview. You can see the different hikes, prices, duration and difficulty.
We did Hadrians Wall sea to sea. Most self guided hikes are the same inclusions, which is bags go forward day to day, breakfast, lodging, maps. You only need to hike with a day pack.
Sounds like one of the Camino routes to me, though you can certainly walk farther than 10 miles if you like and you do not have to send your pack on if you prefer to carry it. Camino routes are all through Europe, but the most popular go through Spain and Portugal, and all end up at Santiago de Compostela.
Wow! Didn't know these kinds of hiking existed. Sounds like the kind of hiking I would love to do.
Does anyone know if there is a consolidated sources for self-guided walking tours, or do you have to search around in the individual tour companies themselves?
For cycling, for instance, there is biketours.com, which advertises an enormous number of self-guided tours, maybe none of which are actually run by biketours.com? Whatever the case, it's one place you can search to see a big variety of offerings.
Anything similar for walking tours?
Also, OP, If you are a light packer, it's not really difficult to plan your own walking tour were you carry your stuff in a backpack. 15 lbs total can do it pretty easily if you pack right. You can pack more on your trip as well If you can arrange to leave some extra stuff at a hotel to which you'll return after your walk.
The self-guided tour companies establish your route, book your rooms, move your stuff, and give you a map and/or GPS track. For these services they charge 2-3.5 times what would cost for you to walk with your things and book your own hotels. There's a lot more planning involved, but there's also a ton of savings and satisfaction doing it your way.
Maybe not right now but if you get one under your belt and see that it's not so tricky ...
For less ambitious walkers - Circular Strolls Near London
Circular Strolls Near London
A handy guidebook outlines 27 bucolic walks outside the British capital that begin and end at train stations.
I found that I could easily escape the noise and crowds of the city to experience the poet William Blake’s “pleasant pastures seen” without needing to own or rent a car; drive on the left side of the road; or attempt to conquer complicated roundabouts.
I did it by following the maps and text in the lightweight guidebook “The Home Counties From London by Train: Outstanding Circular Walks”. Part of a series of paperbacks produced in a partnership between Pathfinder Guides and the Ordnance Survey, the British national mapping agency, the book details 27 walks of varying intensity levels and ranging in length from two to nearly 12 miles, each beginning after a relatively short train ride from one of London’s main stations.
We hiked the Cotswold Way a few years back. Start to finish is about 100 miles. We went through Contours (https://www.contours.co.uk/cotswold-way) and they did a great job. They booked us at small hotels and B&B's each night and arranged for our luggage to be transported between them. I highly recommend them for a hiking tour. It was a fantastic experience!
Just google "supported walking tours Europe" and you'll find lots of options.
We did The tour du Mont blank in July with Macs adventures and highly recommend it. Definitely do not need a full guided trip. We chose a shortened version due to our schedules and found that was a great choice. Please feel free to pm me with any questions.
Rick’s show about his Tour du Mont Blanc hiking was only a couple of years ago. To do the full route takes several more days, but Rick hiked for only three (maybe the most scenic sections) and said it was the hardest hiking he’d ever done.
Another episode many years ago showed the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage walk, ending in the northwest of Spain.
Rick’s described Hadrian’s Wall in his guidebooks and on TV, but hasn’t covered walking the length of the Wall. The trail is 84 miles long, and is more walking than hiking. The Wall was an ancient barrier created when the Roman Empire extended into what’s now England, along what is now the border with Scotland. We walked the length of it in 2015, essentially crossing England from the Atlantic to the North Sea (about the narrowest part of the country), and had a service transport out suitcases from B&B to B&B. We picked out where we were staying, so were able to decide how far to go each day, and had small backpacks during the day, to carry snacks and rain gear. There are companies that can organize all of it for you, and you just do the walking. The route is signposted, and parts of the ancient wall remain, although over the centuries, a lot of it was dismantled by locals, who used the stones to build their own structures. There are fascinating museums along the way too, which show Roman artifacts and describe life as a soldier in forts along the Wall. If the weather is too much or you’re too tired at any time, you can get a bus or taxi ride to move farther along, or to get to your lodging for that night.
Just want to recommend On Foot Holidays, a small company that does a brilliant job of organizing self-guided walking tours in Europe. We have done three, and they have been fantastic. If I could start over again in life I would try to do them all. They send GPS files, so you always know exactly where you are, but their written directions are so detailed that it isn't hard to follow them. There is also a local contact for each hike that can help you with any problems you encounter.
And I would disagree with one of the posts above which suggests that it's easy to carry your things on your back. Having your luggage ferried each day works much better for most of us as we get older. Plus if the weather is bad or you have an injury, you can "ride with the luggage."
Another rather less well known walking trail in the UK, which is a gentle walk (few severe gradients) is the Trans Pennine Trail from Southport (near Liverpool) to Hull through Manchester and Yorkshire.
The trail is part of European Trail E8, 2900 miles from Cork (Ireland) to Turkey, using ferries from Ireland to the UK, and Hull to Rotterdam.
I presume there will be Sherpa companies for the TPT, although not the whole E8. In fact I saw one last week when walking a small part of the trail in Cheshire/Manchester.
Does anyone know if there is a consolidated sources for self-guided walking tours, or do you have to search around in the individual tour companies themselves?
Have a look at Komoot.
OP, you probably saw the clip where Rick is talking about the Camino de Santiago. There's a whole page on the website dedicated to it: Camino de Santiago. He also had a Monday Night Travel show devoted to it, with guest Cassandra Overby: MNT. Plenty of info for you there.
It's also possible you saw a more recent clip of him hiking Tour du Mont Blanc. Perhaps this one. He mentioned that he used Mac's to arrange the tour for him and do luggage transport, etc.
These are two of the most famous and very busy multi-day hikes in Europe, though I cannot offer any firsthand experience of either, beyond a couple very small portions of the Camino in Spanish Basque country, which were great.
For such hikes in Germany, google ‘wandern ohne gepack ‘
I can second marypkitch’s recommendation for Onfoot Travel. We did one of their tours last year and the communication and organisation was excellent. We really enjoyed walking through countryside and staying in small hotels. Only wish we were fit enough to tackle some of their other routes, but we’re not serious hikers.
